About half a dozen fully armed girl-combat soldiers speaking perfect English with American and British accents who volunteered to serve in the IDF because “it is the right thing to do” send their families back home a Happy Independence Day message hoping that they too will one day make “Aliya.” Cute, dust and sweat covered faces of young people who willingly serve in the IDF terror squads present Israel to the world as a harmless friendly little country just busy defending itself.

But even the sweet smiles of young Israeli girl-soldiers cannot hide the brutality of the regime they serve: Thousands of Palestinians sit in Israeli prisons. An estimated three hundred prisoners are held without charge, under administrative arrest. The heroism of Khader Adnan and Hana Elshalabi, which makes the Israeli girl soldiers look pathetic, sparked a wave of hunger strikes throughout the prison population and brought the issue of the administrative incarceration of Palestinians by Israel to the forefront. When asked by CNN to explain the administrative detention of Adnan, the face of Israeli apologetics Mark Regev, had a tough time. He claimed that since much of the information about the defendants was classified, the state had to withhold it from the public and from the defendant who is of course a known terrorist, except that if he were indeed a known terrorist then one would think that the state would charge him. In other words once again the entire security argument is shown to be a lie.

For Israel all of this is a game of public relations as it keeps indulging itself with huge amounts of self-righteousness. Squeezed between the IDF one the one hand and a bureaucracy that oppresses and incarcerates them on the other, Palestinians are caught as though between the claws of a giant crab. Yet the face of apartheid Israel, whether in El Al ads or the IDF spokesman promotion videos is always that of brave looking young Israeli soldiers with smiles on their faces. As long as Israel’s case is being presented favorably with an American accent and a smile then everything is fine.

It has been two years since the Israeli Naval commandos attacked the Mavi Marmara on its way to Gaza, and two commando “fighters” who were apparently injured by armed terrorists on the Mavi Marmara, are now finally healed and able to return to active duty. This warranted a story in the weekend edition of Yediot Aharonot. The cover photo had the two wounded warriors wearing ski masks that cover their mouth and nose so that they will not be recognized and they are both in uniform aiming their semi automatic guns at imaginary enemies. One of the two was apparently shot in the stomach and the other had fractured his arm in the “battle.” In the report there are several photos of these wounded warriors as well as a photo of the arms found on the “terrorist’s” boat: one can clearly see kitchen utensils, mechanical equipment like wrenches and hammers, chains, a Kuffiya and CDs. But strangely enough, there is no gun in the photo. The gun that was used to shoot the soldier is missing from the photo and there is no explanation as to where it might be.

The soldiers, heroes that they are, admit that as they were preparing for the this “operation” they were expecting some mild violence, but they were shocked by the level of violence and the aggressive reactions of the “terrorists” on board the Mavi Marmara. In one part of the story, the one soldier said that after he was shot he saw one of the terrorists aim a gun at another soldier and so even as he was bleeding from a stomach wound and in great pain, he “finished him off.” “How were you able to tell the terrorists from the plain civilian activists?” The reporter asks the soldiers whose names are not revealed and are identified only by their first initial, “the terrorists had orange color vests on.”

Zionism is at war with the Palestinian people. As Israel tries to erase all signs of Palestinian existence and Palestinian connection to the land, its forces brutally kill or arrest those who resist or even just get in the way. Israel has delegitimized itself and made the ethnic cleansing of Palestine the hallmark of Zionism. The tragic and pathetic attempts to cover up the horror with silly public relations gimmicks will not hide the fact that it Israel is a rogue terrorist state.

not only did I not throw up, but I was moved to tears by the dedication of people who gladly a defend a nation that isn’t even theirs! Israel has only fought defensively in wars, protecting themselves from the surrounding nations that want to see them destroyed. It’s an ancient problem that they’ve faced and will continue to face until the Messiah returns to a Jewish Jerusalem and establishes His Kingdom. Thanks for posting the link – my day is better because of it and I will continue to pray for peace in the Middle East.

We can only wonder if Miko Peled knows who land was stolen and who was murdered, so that she could sit where she is and speak English and Hebrew there. Or maybe she thinks that it was a “Land without People for FreedomFighters without Mortgages”?